The New York Yankees won an exciting seven game World Series from the San Francisco Giants in 1962.
Ralph Terry, who had yielded Bill Mazeroski’s series winning homer two years earlier, was the hero in 1962. He pitched a (1-0) shutout in game seven.
The Giants had runners on second and third with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning when Willie McCovey lined out to Yankees’ second baseman Bobby Richardson to end the World Series.
At that point in time, the Yankees had won an incredible 20 World Series in 40 seasons. They did not win another title for 15 seasons.
Once again, the Miami Heat are the favorites to win the NBA championship.
The Heat are battling the Indiana Pacers for the top record in the NBA East. It is likely the two teams will meet in the Eastern Conference finals.
Last year Miami won at home in game seven to go to the finals. In the finals, they prevailed in an exciting seven game series vs the San Antonio Spurs.
A current Heat hot streak was highlighted by LeBron James’ game winning three point shot vs the Golden State Warriors that also avenged an earlier season loss against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
There is a long way to go and with strong contenders like the Pacers, Thunder and Spurs–it will be tough for Miami to win again. However they deserve to be considered the top choice to win it all for a third straight season.
In 1961, a magnificent New York Yankees team left no doubt as to which was the best team.
They won the American League pennant fairly easily despite a fine Detroit Tigers’ team.
Next they won the World Series in five games from the Cincinnati Reds.
That year Roger Maris set a single season record with 61 home runs breaking Babe Ruth’s record. The great Mickey Mantle hit 54.
There was so much more as Elston Howard batted .348, while Edward “Whitey ” Ford broke Babe Ruth’s record for scoreless innings in the World Series.
Since two of Ruth’s records were broken some history books call 1961 a “bad year for the Babe.” Of course it attests to Ruth’s greatness as a player.
In the 1960 World Series, Hal Smith hit one of the most important and dramatic home runs in baseball history.
If in the seventh game of a World Series, you hit a three run home run that transforms a one run deficit into a two run lead in the bottom of the eighth inning, it is an epic home run.
Hal Smith did just that. Yet largely due to the fact that the New York Yankees tied the score vs Smith’s Pittsburgh Pirates with two runs in the top of the ninth inning, his home run does not get the right amount of credit.
In my opinion, it was one of the biggest hits in baseball history.
Smith connected for a three run homer that put the Pirates up (9-7) with 2 outs in the bottom of the eighth inning.
The fact the Yankees tied the score and Pittsburgh won it all on Bill Mazeroski’s homer leading off the bottom of the ninth inning, should not diminish the importance of Smith’s home run. Again it was one of the most important in baseball history.
Yesterday was the first day of Baseball spring training. A look at one of the games, matching the Toronto Blue Jays and Philadelphia Phillies, stirred World Series memories.
Those teams met in the 1993 World Series with the Jays prevailing in six games.
The World Series ended on a three run home run by Joe Carter. He hit it off Mitch Williams, who also lost game 4 in that World Series.
Only one other time did the World Series end on a home run. The year was 1960 and Bill Mazeroski hit it as the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the New York Yankees. Those teams also played yesterday in the first exhibition game.
The NHL resumes after its break for the Winter Olympics with one game tonight.
Tomorrow there is a nice slate of games with one involving the Detroit Red Wings and Montreal Canadiens.
The game will be in Montreal and surely Canadiens’ goaltender Carey Price will get a rousing ovation for his Olympic performance.
On Thursday night, the New York Rangers and Chicago Blackhawks meet at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Each of those games matches the original six NHL teams.
Last year all six original six teams made the NHL playoffs. Right now as the season is about to resume, all six would qualify for the playoffs if the season ended today.
The Original Six
Jason Collins, listed next to last in the box score, received an inordinate amount of publicity for playing 11 minutes in a basketball game last night.
The reason is that Collins is the first openly gay player in professional sports.
I discussed Collins situation last year and hope for the day when a player being gay is not made a big deal by the media.
He did not score a point and had two rebounds. There was an awful lot of publicity for very small basketball production.
Of course gay rights as human rights is an important issue. However, with all my problems, I do not have the problem of caring what someone’s race, ethnicity, or sexual orientation happens to be.
One postscript: also on Sunday but with far less publicity a “Gay” had a great game with 32 points and 11 rebounds. That player has the surname Gay, he is Rudy Gay of the Sacramento Kings.
Jason Collins
It was Syracuse basketball coach Jim Boeheim’s “explosion” and technical fouls that grabbed the headlines from Duke University’s six point regular season home win last Saturday.
Boeheim ran on the court and was assessed technical fouls in arguing a late call that went against Syracuse.
Exploding, going on the court, and getting technical fouls is not a classy act.
Boeheim has less “snake oil” than some, even most other coaches, but have it, he does.
He is an excellent coach and he was Dave Bing’s backcourt partner at Syracuse in the 1960’s.
The antics likely will temporarily fire up the talented Syracuse basketball team. They have lost two straight games, struggled in three but are certainly one of the leading contenders for this year’s title.
Canada continued its recent domination of its national sport, hockey, as they won (3-0) in the men’s gold medal game vs Sweden.
It is the second straight Olympic gold medal and third in the last four for the men’s team from Canada. The women’s team has won four straight Olympic gold medals.
Jonathan Toews, who has been on two Stanley Cup winners in four seasons, with the Chicago Blackhawks opened the scoring.
Carey Price currently with the Montreal Canadiens in the NHL, recorded his second straight shutout in goal for Canada. All in all a great performance for Canada.
Jonathan Toews
No team has gone unbeaten and won the NCAA basketball crown since the Bob Knight coached Indiana Hoosiers in 1976.
That was the first year after legendary coach John Wooden of UCLA had retired.
Indiana had gone unbeaten in the regular season the year before but lost to Kentucky in the regional finals.
The Hoosiers were under a great deal of pressure in 1976 but were up to the task first beating UCLA with Gene Bartow as coach in the semi-finals.
In an all Big Ten Conference final, Indiana defeated Michigan to win the title.
Andy B Sports 